


Alicia and Bob (I & II)

by meansgirl



Series: Missing Scenes [4]
Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Coming Out, Family Feels, Gen, Short, Zimmermann Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-25
Updated: 2017-05-25
Packaged: 2018-11-04 18:30:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,182
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10996527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meansgirl/pseuds/meansgirl
Summary: A short ficlet about Jack telling his parents about Bitty - the conversation mentioned in Junior Year #13 - Riverside.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is two of a series of tumblr shorts I did exploring the Zimmer-parents' reactions to Jack and Bitty's relationship. There is another part, but it does not (currently) fit with the Missing Scenes 'verse (but maybe later, who knows!)

When Jack says, “I’m seeing someone. It’s serious,” Alicia hopes he can’t see that she’s digging her nails into Bob’s arm. 

“Oh?” She smiles. “Really?”

Bob says nothing. Alicia glances at him, and finds that he’s blinking at the screen of her laptop, head cocking to the side. 

“Yeah,” Jack continues. Alicia watches him wipe his hands on the legs of his jeans.

_Oh, my baby,_ she thinks.  _Don’t be afraid._

Jack says, “It’s Bitty. Uh– Eric Bittle? You know him–”

Bob lets out a rush of air next to her and it startles Alicia into turning her head fully to watch him rub a hand over his face.

“Papa?”

“Thank god,” Bob mutters. Alicia doesn’t think Jack hears it. “That’s wonderful,” he says to Jack. “Since when?”

“Oh,” Jack half-smiles. “Well. Graduation day.”

Alicia lets up on her grip on Bob’s arm and laughs. “Well, then! You’ve kept quiet.”

“Yeah,” Jack says, quiet. “I didn’t… I thought it might worry you. I don’t know.”

“He’s  _adorable_ ,” Bob says. Alicia watches embarrassment, but also full agreement on her son’s face. “I knew– Well. I thought maybe.”

“Papa,” Jack rolls his eyes. “Not you too.”

“Who else would you have taken off for the way that you did?” Bob demands. “I’m not blind, Jack, christ. But– What. Me too?”

“We told the Samwell guys,” Jack says. “Right before Thanksgiving. Bitty needed to, he was. It was hard for him.”

Alicia feels herself smiling wider. “My baby,” she says. “Tell us about him.” 

And Jack does. Alicia thinks if she makes it through this conversation without bursting into grateful tears, she’ll have earned a medal in self-control. Jack looks like he hasn’t looked in years. Maybe a decade. Alicia is staring at a grown man, but he finally looks like her  _son_  again, the little boy he was before hockey got truly serious, before he went away and out of her reach for so long. Jack smiles, he talks. It’s stumbling and a little rusty, but he tells them about his life and barely mentions hockey. 

Well. 

“You’ve seen him play,” Jack is saying to his father, radiating pride. “He’s fast, he’s intuitive. And he’s made insane improvements, just mind blowing. Shitty and I went to their opener and he– Ah. Sorry.”

Bob and Alicia simultaneously snap out of their shared awe. 

Bob says, “Go on.” 

“No, it’s… I’m rambling.”

Alicia says, “We love Eric. You know that. I follow him on Twitter, he’s just a delight.”

_And his tweets make_ so _much sense now_ , Alicia thinks but doesn’t say. 

“You said it’s serious?” Bob leans forward. “What does that mean?”

Jack takes a deep breath. “I’m not going to hide him. Not forever. Not for long, even.”

Alicia catches her breath and laces her fingers with her husband’s. “Jack, I’m so…”

“We’re so immensely proud,” Bob finishes. “So proud. I don’t have to tell you it won’t be easy.”

“Ha,” Jack looks down and away, shakes his head. “No, you don’t.”

“But you wouldn’t want to come out for just anyone, would you?” 

Alicia squeezes Bob’s hand, watches Jack shake his head at his father’s question. 

“No,” Jack says. “If I were alone, or if this was casual. It wouldn’t matter. I mean. I wouldn’t be doing this at all if it were casual. I don’t–”

Alicia can’t help herself, she’s melting from the inside out. She nearly says,  _Jack, you’re in love_. She doesn’t. She says, “It’ll be worth it?”

“Yes,” Jack says, smiling and smiling and handsome and whole. “He’s worth it.”

Alicia makes eye contact with Bob, sees the same wonder she feels. 

“Okay,” she says. “So I think we should have dinner, don’t you?”


	2. Chapter 2

“I think I’m in shock,” Alicia says later, holding her wine glass to her cheek, leaning against the kitchen island while Bob washes produce. “Not that he’s with Eric. but that he told us. Just like that.”

“Just like that,” Bob agrees. He turns off the sink and dumps a handful of carrots on a dish towel. “Though…he did keep it quiet, didn’t he?”

Alicia laughs, nods, “For months!”

“Since the summer!” Bob counters, taking up a knife and moving celery to the cutting board. 

Alicia marvels, “Over half a year.”

Bob shakes his head. “Since Graduation!”

Alicia ignores the muttered  _knew it_ and says, “Bobby…he’s serious about this.”

Bob looks up from his chopping. “Seems like it. How serious do you think?”

“I…” Alicia shrugs. She empties her glass and crosses to refill it from the bottle behind her. She looks out the kitchen window at the back yard rolling down to the practice rink, and the trees beyond. “He’s going to bring that boy here. And soon. Now that we know, and now that I’ve seen Jack’s face… I’m surprised he wasn’t here for Christmas this year.”

“Jack said Eric’s parents don’t know. I’m sure that has something to do with it,” Bob says. “How would he explain wanting to come here?”

Alicia sighs, returns to Bob’s side. “That lovely boy,” she says. “I can’t imagine his parents reacting poorly. Suzanne seemed just as sweet as him when we met.”

“There’s no way to know how people really feel,” Bob says. “If he comes out to them and it doesn’t go well… Can Jack handle that? Can either of them? What then?”

“God,” Alicia says. “Jack would have Eric moved in with him the next  _day_. He’d be  _frantic_  to arrange that boy’s life so he never had to worry about a thing. I confess I only know Eric from two short meetings in person and his social media but… He wouldn’t allow it. But he would need  _something_. Some kind of support. Poor thing. I hope it doesn’t go that way.”

Bob shrugs. “Kent Parson practically lived here the summer before…well. And Jack never bothered to clue us in to  _that_ situation until after the fact. I still get a phone call from that boy on my birthday.”

“And?”

“And Kent was never going to be the be-all end-all for Jack, but I still care for him like he was ours, in a way, whether Jack still keeps in touch with him or not. I’d do damn near anything for someone who turned our kid into the person we just saw. Anything.”

Alicia leans into his side. Bob tilts his head obligingly so she can press a kiss to his temple. “You’re pretty decent, as fathers and husbands go, have I mentioned?”

“High praise,” Bob jokes. 

Alicia gooses him on the way past him and out of the kitchen. “I’m going to go take five minutes to cry a little and then I’ll set the table.”

“Good plan,” Bob says, amusement in his voice. “When you come back we should probably come up with the nicest way to tell Jack he can’t propose to a twenty year old college junior, because if I’m honest, this is a concern I have.”

Alicia holds her hand to her heart. “Bobby, I can’t take it.”

“I know,” he says. “Isn’t it great?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> adventuresinsuburbia.tumblr.com! Come scream with me!


End file.
